His research: Mark studies how dinosaur bones change with growth and how fossil bone is preserved.

Burning questions: "What's the difference chemically and mineralogically between an unaltered modern bone and a fossil bone? What is the effect, if any, of the burial environment on the mineral and chemical properties, and how do you measure it?"

Sidelights: Mark is also researching the behavior and life history of pachycephalosaurs (dome-headed dinosaurs) and ceratopsids (horned-dinosaurs), particularly Triceratops.

His favorite thing about research: "The field of paleontology is much more integrative now, and working with colleagues from geochemistry, biology, and medicine, makes research both fun and challenging. Probing fossils with particle beams and X-rays, or slicing thin sections only 100's of microns thick, provides a wealth of new questions and projects. Plus I enjoy traveling to new places and meeting new people!"

Goodwin, M.B. and J.R. Horner. 2014. Cranial morphology of a juvenile Triceratops skull from the Hell Creek Formation, McCone County Montana, with comments on the fossil record of ontogenetically younger skulls. Pp. 333-347 in G.P. Wilson, W.A. Clemens, J.R. Horner, J.H. Hartman, (eds.), Through the End of the Cretaceous in the Type Locality of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Adjacent Areas. Geological Society of America Special Paper 503.

Goodwin, M. 2012. The University as a Portal to Collection-based Research, Outreach, and Education. Proceedings of APRU Research Symposium on University Museums: Forming a University Museum Collection Network as the Core of Frontier Research. Kyoto, Japan. Sept. 11-14, 2012. pp. 27-30.